In my apartment I had my M80 center speaker upside-down above my TV. I found that pulled the center of soundstage up some but not as much as having it right-side-up. I didn’t notice any change in tone or balance just that when using multi-channel audio or Dolby PLIIx the center of the front soundstage seemed a little like it was on a dais.
I did find two things. First that having the tweeters at ear level wasn’t as important as having the tweeters and midrange drivers of the mains (sitting right-side-up on the ground) closer to the tweeter and midrange drivers of the center (above the TV). Having the smaller drivers nearer each other vertically prevented side-to-side pans from moving up and down as tehy crossed center. So to accomidated this I also raised my M80 mains so they were a foot or so off the ground.
This lead me to the second finding, that I felt my whole front soundstage sounded better with the speakers raised a couple feet. There was more of a wall-of-sound but w/o loosing any of the stereo imaging. Also the overall ambience was better even when using 2 channel music. I’m not sure why but surmise that elevating the speakers placed me closer middle of the driver array vertically which evens out where the sound is coming from in the vertical plane (more wall of sound) and also got the tweeters and midrange drivers above the level of my furniture allowing for better dispersion and reflection of their sound waves (better ambience). Just guessing though.
I liked having the speakers elevated so much I seriously considered using an AT screen and putting the M80s on stands behind it, but this would have pushed the screen to far out into the room. The compromise I found is that now for 2 channel music is sit on the ground in front of my main seating which puts the tweeters about a foot over my head.
Personally I think having your speakers above the screen as you plan will sound great, even better than having them on the ground. I also don’t think you will have any problem with placing them up-side-down, but I imagine the speakers are symmetrical so you could possibly try both orientations and let us know what you think of each.
Cheers,
Dean
